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Ohio Senate President Keith Faber (R-Celina) this week reiterated his concern that Governor John Kasich may bankrupt the state’s Medicaid program if the Ohio Controlling Board rejects Kasich’s request to spend Obamacare funding.

Last month, the Kasich Administration submitted a Medicaid state plan amendment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requesting to expand Ohio’s Medicaid program to cover the new population set by Obamacare. HHS approved the amendment on October 10.

Gov. Kasich has not issued an executive order to enact the Obamacare expansion, but Sen. Faber suggested on Monday that Kasich would need to do so to expand eligibility.

Faber warned that if the Kasich Administration expands Medicaid and the Controlling Board refuses to appropriate Obamacare funds, ”current Medicaid recipients — you know, kids and moms and people that are currently covered under the Medicaid program — would not have services.”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily a good result, and so I would imagine the Controlling Board on Monday will give the governor authority to move [Obamacare money] from that federal line to the state line.”

A week earlier, the staunchly pro-expansion Columbus Dispatchreported that Sen. Faber had made similar comments. Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel speculated, “could GOP legislative leaders who have thus far resisted expansion argue that they are being forced to go along – or else bankrupt a system that serves 2.4 million Ohioans?”

Asked on October 15 whether he believes the Obamacare Medicaid expansion will be good for Ohio, Sen. Faber indicated surrender to the Republican governor.

Faber said he did not plan to replace either of the two state senators who serve on the seven-member Controlling Board, and declined to say how he expects any member of the board to vote.

“I don’t know that I would’ve necessarily been a fan of expanding Medicaid, but that’s not the question anymore,” Faber told reporters. ”Now the question is how do we do Medicaid reforms that are going to make the system more efficient, more effective, and provide coverage to more people for less money.”

Asked to explain why he would “go along with” the Obamacare Medicaid expansion after months of opposition from conservatives, Faber said, “I don’t know that we’re doing the Medicaid expansion — the governor is doing the Medicaid expansion.”

Faber explained that Medicaid consumed 16.9 percent of Ohio’s budget in 1980 and 50.2 percent of the state budget this year.

“I believe in legislative issues, but on this issue, the legislature’s given the governor authority a number of years ago,” Sen. Faber said. ”We tried to take that authority away in the budget; the governor used his line-item veto to keep his authority, and so I think he can do it.”

The Ohio Revised Code dictates that the Controlling Board, however, “shall take no action which does not carry out the legislative intent of the general assembly.”

In February, Gov. Kasich included the Obamacare Medicaid expansion in his biennial budget plan only to have the proposal removed by the Ohio House.

As Sen. Faber acknowledged this week, both houses of the legislature expressed their opposition to Medicaid expansion with budget language forbidding it.

With Sen. Faber now repeatedly suggesting the governor will threaten to bankrupt Ohio’s Medicaid program in order to extend eligibility to hundreds of thousands of able-bodied childless adults, John Kasich’s governing style is converging ever more rapidly with Barack Obama’s.

Way back in 2012, the United States Supreme Court, in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, issued a landmark ruling that upheld the supposed constitutionality of ObamaCare by justifying the individual mandate as a proper exercise of Congress’s taxing power. This is what allowed ObamaCare to continue to be a drain on our economy and the American taxpayer.

FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs made the statements below on the recent developments at the White House concerning health insurance. Concerning Thursday’s executive order about association health plans, Jason Pye said:

Last week, four Republican senators unveiled a proposal that could present a path forward on health insurance reform. The proposal, introduced in the form of an amendment to the House-passed version of H.R. 1628, is far from perfect, and it's not the repeal of ObamaCare that was promised. Nevertheless, FreedomWorks is treating it as what is likely to be the last serious attempt at health insurance reform before the September 30 deadline for reconciliation under the FY 2017 budget resolution.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced today that it planned to reduce the budget to promote health plans available on the ObamaCare exchanges from the roughly $100 million spent during the last open enrollment period to $10 million for the upcoming open enrollment period, which is set to begin on November 1 and end on December 15. There will also be a reduction in funding for Navigators, from $62.5 million last year to $36.8 million this year.

September may be the busiest month of 2017 for Congress. There is a long list of must-pass legislation on the agenda, including the debt limit and appropriations for at least part of FY 2018, when Congress reconvenes on Tuesday, September 5. The calendar, however, isn't kind. There are only 12 legislative days scheduled in the House and 17 in the Senate.